College in Scotland

There are a few reasons why we decided to live in Britain for several years. Our children were born in Ohio and I definitely wanted to add a European perspective to their experience so that they could then better choose where to live and at least understand more of the world. They also have family over here whom they barely knew. Of course, all that was before Brexit threatened to make it more difficult for British citizens to live and work in the European Union.

Our eldest is now accepted to attend a Scottish university and given how I moan about the weather, house prices, etc. in Britain, it is a sweetener to note that the Scottish Government pay the tuition fees. For the other expenses they provide a student loan for which the current representative APR is just 1.75%. For repayments one pays 9% of one's income over (currently) £18,330 per annum or, if returning to the US, (currently) $18,935.

Hon. Tom Cotton facing questions

Some days ago I was saying how one thing I miss in the US is senior politicians facing direct questioning from skeptics. Sure, we are now in the midst of the Democratic primaries but that is rather more the exception than the rule. I should thus report that I was pleasantly surprised this morning to find on BBC Radio 4 a journalist interviewing one of Arkansas' senators. Well, the interview at all was a surprise, the pleasant part was that he was engaging with somewhat critical questions. Especially on BBC Radio Scotland many politicians seem to use interviews as an opportunity to ignore the questions and repeat their soundbites as many times as possible. While I may disagree with much of the substance of Senator Cotton's views I appreciate that he was at least willing to appear on the show to actually answer questions.